Movies
A pretty horrible Hollywood romance. Katharine Hepburn plays a woman who isn't content sitting at home, servicing her husband. If that's enough to make you giddy then this could be a film for you, I just saw a film that buried itself in terrible clichés and was brought down by a terrible performance by Hepburn. Tess and Sam work for the same newspaper. It takes a while for them to get used to each other, but they eventually fall in love and get married. Tess is very focused on her job, and she gets even more distant when she earns an important feminist title. Sam feels neglected and they quickly grow apart. It's a romance that doesn't sparkle, and whatever dramatic or comedic elements there are fall completely flat. Hepburn annoyed me, Tracy wasn't any better, and with a runtime of nearly 2 hours, this turned out to be quite the ordeal. It's a film that has aged terribly, but I say that about most Hollywood classics.Read all
Classic Hollywood cinema, to the max. If you like American epics like Gone With the Wind this might be something for you, I couldn't really bear the kitsch, the sentimentality, and the overbearing drama. Which sucks, because Giant runs 201 minutes long. A true gargantuan undertaking. When Benedict bumps into Leslie, it is love at first sight. He asks her to marry him and they both travel to Texas, where Benedict's ranch is located. His sister runs the place, and so does so quite sternly. When she dies she leaves a bit of land to Jett, a helper on the ranch. He digs for oil and hits the jackpot. The performances are overdone, the cinematography and colors are ugly as can be and the score is tiresome. I didn't care for any of the characters, nor their soap-like drama. The runtime is the final nail in the coffin. Giant is a grotesque Hollywood drama that deserves to be buried in the past.Read all
This was absolutely dreadful. I'm not a fan of westerns to begin with, but coupled with crude, sentimental drama it truly becomes a new level of awful. I've never watched Little House on the Prairie (so I can't really compare), but Shane was exactly what I faired that series would be. Shane is a former gunslinger who gets tangled up in a conflict between some poor farmers and a couple of wealthy ranch owners. Shane picks the side of the farmers, a choice that will ultimately lead to a bloody confrontation. Don't expect too much action though, because the drama takes the upper hand in this film. This is by far one of the ugliest films I've seen. Harsh and unflattering colors, poor cinematography, bland camera work. The soundtrack is feeble, actors appear wooden and feel like lazy caricatures. And the sentiment is so terribly kitsch that it overwhelms everything else. Awful, awful film.Read all
A classic, sentimental drama. Drab, black and white cinematography, highly expressive performances and a worn out, dragged out plot make this quite an ordeal to sit through. The characters left me completely cold, and since that's pretty much all what the film was betting its marbles on, this was a pretty big failure. George is a young man looking for a purpose in life. Uncertain of what to do with his life, he goes to work for his uncle. There he meets Alice, a colleague, who he has an affair with. He forgets all about her when he bumps into Angela, a rich girl who immediately falls for the charms of George. Scripted romances, simplistic drama and some courtroom intrigue. I didn't care for any of it. This was one of those films where nothing felt particularly special or noteworthy, a long succession of predictable scenes that didn't inspire any emotion at all. At two hours long, it really tested my patience, sadly, I got nothing in return.Read all